Posts Tagged ‘Body Counts’

Physicians for Social Responsibility, in a report issued several weeks ago, estimated that more than 1 million people died in Iraq during the past 15 years as a result of U.S.-led military operations, and more than 300,000 people died in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I’m not certain these numbers are accurate. I do think they are as close to being accurate as is humanity possible. I don’t find them unbelievable. They’re partly based on verified reports, partly on statistical sampling methods most Americans find credible when applied to everyday subjects.

The worst thing to me is not the number, but the indifference of the American public. We as a nation don’t care about bystanders, except when American citizens happen to be among those accidentally killed.

Somebody might argue that people were killed in larger numbers, and more indiscriminately, in World War Two. But the war against the Axis powers had a definite purpose and came to a definite end. There is no expectation of when the so-called long war on terror might be won, or exactly what winning would consist of.

We talk about the moral breakdown of society. When I think about the moral breakdown of society, I don’t think about sex, drugs and rock-and-roll. I think of the President of the United States drawing up a weekly list of assassination orders, as if this were the most normal thing in the world